William Sutherland's photos with the keyword: Earth

Created by Dall-E 2, IMG2GO and digitally edited in Smart Photo Editor The image on the left depicts a traditional Halloween scene with ghosts, Jack O'Lanterns, and scary looking trees. The image on the right depicts an even scarier scene of terrified children with the planet Earth screaming above while on fire with darkened oceans because of all the spilled blood. This is so because of accelerating climate change featuring record global warmth during human existence, fires, floods and other natural disasters and because of the pitiful state of our affairs featuring wars, violence, depravity and other evils.

Mamaroneck, NY Green is the color of chlorophyll, a key compound in the vast majority of plants. It is synonymous with positive terms such as clean, renewable and most importantly life including our lives. Without plants there would be no photosynthesis and little to no Oxygen. This fact has just been reinforced by a recent scientific study that indicates a billion years from now the Earth’s atmosphere will contain very little Oxygen as the sun ages and consequently becomes hotter. Because of this, the Earth’s CO2 (Carbon dioxide) levels will plunge as it absorbs the increased heat and breaks down. Photosynthesizing organisms (plants) will become extinct, reducing Oxygen levels by a million times while methane levels will soar by 10,000 fold. As a result complex life, including humans will become extinct leaving the planet in its dying days to anaerobic microbial life. Worse yet, when the process begins, it will unfold quickly over a 10,000 year period bringing the Earth back to its pre Oxidation period some 2.4 billion years ago. Thus, it is more important than ever to protect address climate change and protect our intricate and interconnected ecosystems to ensure this inevitable tragedy is not hastened. And if we can establish ecological harmony, prolong the planet’s life and extend our existence, we can buy time until technological advances allow us to create artificial biospheres to generate and maintain Oxygen and CO2 levels to ensure our survival and that of every complex aerobic life form or at least persevere until the very and inevitable end. If we can avoid prematurely hastening our extinction because of irresponsible actions and policy, we will have reason to smile. Perhaps then, the scary will not be so frightening! :) Because of this, I selected green and yellow colors to emphasize the importance of plant life, renewable clean energy, and our dependence on the Earth’s ecosystems that must be sustained for complex aerobic life like ours to continue. The pastel blues and dark purple represent clean water, also an essential ingredient for the continuity of life. The large red dot, which is intended to draw attention, represents future danger from continued unsustainable adverse climate change and the aging sun. While we cannot control the latter, we can have a positive impact on the former our planet and life do not have a premature end. Article Link: phys.org/news/2021-03-simulations-earth-oxygen-rich-atmosphere-billion.html

Larchmont, NY Note: Created from garbage and litter found on the street that included several checkers, some of which had been damaged by moving vehicles. The warm pastel colors are intended to present an atmosphere of comfort and calm. The olive and brown tones represent our interconnectedness to nature and each and every ecosystem on the planet. The abstract shapes and forms represent our indigenous stature with regard to the Earth based on our creation from “the dust of the ground” [Genesis 2:7] that is inclusive of each and every race and gender – “He gave you… diversity of tongues and colors” [Qu’ran: The Romans 30:22]. Because of this, it is imperative we protect our planet and its interconnected ecosystems and human rights for “What should it matter that one bowl is dark and the other pale, if each is of good design and serves its purpose well.” [Hopi (North American Indian) Proverb: Polingaysi Qoyawayma]. The joy arises when harmony between peoples and humanity and nature exist.

Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, NY Note: This high-key photograph depicts Unisphere , the iconic stainless steel globe built by U.S. Steel for the 1964-65 World’s Fair held in Queens, NY. Unisphere represents the Earth, the World’s Fair theme – “Peace through Understanding” [1] in a globally interdependent world, that a half century later is even more dependant on each other with the presence of the Internet, abundance of multi-national corporations and real-time communication to every corner on the planet thanks to satellite technology. Unisphere was dedicated to human achievement highlighted by the reality we live in a “shrinking” world “in an expanding universe” made possible by it. The three rings represent Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s 1961 orbit, American astronaut John Glenn’s 1962 orbit and the 1962 launch of the 70 lb Telstar communications satellite that was conceived and built through American, British and French collaboration and responsible for the first live trans-Atlantic TV broadcast. [2] In today’s 21st century world, the planet has shrunk even more because of population growth and technological evolution. Because of this, our limits in the universe have grown exponentially. Yet, challenges relevant back to 1964-65 persist when it comes to racial, gender inequality and social inequality, the elusiveness of world peace and continued challenges of clean water shortages, immense pollution problem especially of non-biodegradable plastics, hunger and disease. To address these challenges as well as that of climate change and the protection and respect for life, it is more important than ever peoples and nations put aside their differences, make just peace with each other and work together to address them, in which the latter must include consistent and uniform standards for all (developed and developing countries alike) if we are ever to succeed and put the one human race, comprised of billions of precious, indispensable individual lives that are as it is far too short, fragile and fleeting in nature, first. I chose a perspective that included a high-key tree line to reflect the infallible reality, we live in an interconnected world that is ecologically interdependent on each other as well as our need to address climate change whether one agrees it is human-caused or cyclical in nature. As Unisphere rises above the tree line in my photograph, we too have risen from the Earth’s dirt and until we can expand our horizons to other habitable planets in the universe remain completely ecologically dependant on our planet. Thus, if nothing is done to address our planetary challenges, we along with our architecture and technology, will crumble into extinction leaving an empty, desolate and lifeless planetary legacy for others to discover millennia in the future – that’s if anything remains. ____ [1] Flushing Meadows Corona Park. . NYC Parks. 18 August 2019. www.nycgovparks.org/parks/flushing-meadows-corona-park/highlights/12712 [2] Unisphere . Wikipedia. 14 August 2019. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unisphere Additional Source: Suzanne Deffree. Telstar I makes live trans-Atlantic TV broadcast, July 23, 1962. EDN Network. 23 July 2019. www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/edn-moments/4390874/Telstar-1-makes-1st-live-trans-Atlantic-TV-broadcast--July-23--1962